Artwork and Animation Reviews by Christopher Signore - often for shows of the obscure sort

Sunday, 13 January 2013

An Open Letter to CITV

Dear CITV,

We (that is everyone who grew up
throughout the 80's and 90's) would like to share our united
thanks for your fantastic Old Skool weekend on the 6th and 7th of
January. It was without doubt the best way to celebrate your 30th
anniversary by broadcasting the best of the best - a perfect blend of
animation, comedy, game shows and drama, all of which were lovely to
have seen again on the small screen after so long. I can say with
complete satisfaction that I enjoyed each and every one to its
fullest, all with good reason.

These are the viewing rates for the
entire weekend;

(Source: Digital Spy / 'Sooty,
Sweep and Soo' Facebook Page)

CITV - SATURDAY

09:25 - Mike and Angelo: 150k (2.3%)

09:50 - Super Gran: 203k (2.9%)

10:15 - Wizadora: 240k (3.1%)

10:30 - T-Bag: 304k (3.8%)

10:50 - Engie Benjy: 234k (3.0%)

11:05 - The Raggy Dolls: 308k (3.9%)

11:15 - Puddle Lane: 297k (3.8%)

11:35 - Count Duckula: 349k (4.4%)

12:00 - The Sooty Show: 396k (4.6%)

12:25 - Art Attack: 377k (4.2%)

12:40 - The Big Bang: 345k (3.5%)

13:00 - Finders Keepers: 411k (4.0%)

13:30 - Fun House: 403k (3.7%)

14:00 - Knightmare: 361k (3.2%)

14:30 - Fraggle Rock: 324k (3.0%)

15:00 - The Worst Witch: 199k (1.7%)

15:30 - Woof!: 247k (2.0%)

16:00 - Dramarama: 145k (1.0%)

16:30 - Press Gang: 163k (1.0%)

17:00 - The Tomorrow People: 134k
(0.7%)

17:30 - Children's Ward: 83.5k (0.4%)

CITV - SUNDAY

09:25 - Mike and Angelo - 209k

09:50 - Spatz - 270k

10:15 - Huxley Pig - 297k

10:30 - Rainbow - 369k

10:50 - Button Moon - 448k

11:05 - The Riddlers - 453k

11:15 - Rosie and Jim - 457k

11:35 - Dangermouse - 544k

12:00 - Sooty and Co - 448k

12:25 - How 2 - 439k

12:40 - Finger Tips - 280k

13:00 - Jungle Run - 323k

13:30 - Fun House - 407k

14:00 - Knightmare - 325k

14:30 - Fraggle Rock - 226k

15:00 - My Parents Are Aliens - 154k

15:30 - Woof! - 79k

16:00 - Dramarama - 38k

16:30 - Press Gang - 71k

17:00 - The Tomorrow People - 65k

17:30 - Children's Ward - 28

The Top 10 Highest Ratings Shows
(SATURDAY)

01 - Finders Keepers

02 - Fun House

03 - The Sooty Show

04 - Art Attack

05 - Knightmare

06 - Count Duckula

07 - The Big Bang

08 - Fraggle Rock

09 - The Raggy Dolls

10 - T-Bag

The Top 10 Highest Ratings Shows
(SUNDAY)

01 - Dangermouse

02 - Rosie and Jim

03 - The Riddlers

04 - Sooty and Co

05 - Button Moon

06 - How 2

07 - Fun House

08 - Rainbow

09 - Jungle Run

10 - Knightmare

Still the Greatest after all this time!

To put this into perspective, the
highest-rated programme on your digital channel is "Horrid
Henry" with just 269k. In less than two days, Danger Mouse
had broken the record for the highest ratings ever with 544k. Not
just because of the nostalgic factor, but because this series - as
with many of Cosgrove Hall's shows - has upheld against the
tests of time, undoubtedly the best of British Animation. With humour
that is clever and not vulgar, characters that are solidified but not
exaggerated, and acting that is genuine and not forced.

The same also applies for the
pre-school shows that were aired. Even aimed at a younger audience,
the likes of Button Moon and The Riddlers were smart
enough not to talk down to their viewers, whether they were teaching
them basic lessons or simply to entertain them for 5 to 10 minutes.
The Raggy Dolls' message of being different is still relevant
to today's generation (where physical appearance has become more
apparent than ever) but cleverly disguised with imaginative
storytelling.

Wizadora - you'll adore her...and so would today's kids!

In fact, comparing Wizadora with
the odd choice of Engie Benjy, I found the former to be much
more interesting than the latter. Wizadora managed to give us a
string of witty one-liners as characters interacted with one another,
which resulted in a valuable yet subtle moral of friendship. Engie
Benjy, on the other hand, downplayed and over-explained everything as
if in fear that their audience might not understand the story
entirely. And while Wizadora did break the "fourth wall" by
interacting with the viewers, it wasn't as constant as Engie Benjy,
which in this fashion quickly became tiresome and distracted attention from the episode.

It has also become evident that, as
with CBBC and Disney Channel, you have taken a similar interested
focus on live-action comedy. And while the American Imports may save
costs on creating home-made programmes, they still lack the perfect
comedy timing that Mike and Angelo, Woof! and Super
Gran contained that made them oh-so popular in their own times.
And not all of them required a laugh-track to prompt viewers to 'join
in', which was where the quality of "My Parents Are Aliens"
had started to slip later in its run...

Far and away, though, the one element
missing from your digital channel nowadays is a way of engaging the
viewers within the action. That was what made Saturday Mornings much
more interesting, where children were allowed to be part of the
programme, whether in-studio or as a phone-in contestant, a time when
it was great fun to get messy while earning prizes, and a time when a
child used their brains and their muscles within each mad challenge
ahead. Even the presenters for the Monday - Friday schedule made CITV
worth watching because they had more than a disembodied voice to talk
to and be greeted by every afternoon.

Back when "Saturday was Tiswas Day!"

Without these Saturday Mornings for
kids, there would have been no other way technology or certain famous
faces would have gotten to where they are today. Aside from being one of the first to experiment with live phone-ins, Tiswas
introduced us to that common game-show ingredient known as “gunge”,
Knightmare was revolutionary for introducing such
technology like the blue screen chroma - and of course, a huge
amount of folks in prime-time media owe their gratitude to their
current careers - Ant and Dec, Matthew Kelly, Fearne Cotton, Holly
Willoughby, Chris Tarrant - all of which first started out
getting their hair washed with gunge and having a high old time with
the kids!

And not just game shows, but
"funducational" programmes made children want to learn the
world and create amazing arts and crafts by hand - before we had
Wikipedia or Photoshop, before the internet had exploded, we learnt
hundreds of worldly facts from How 2, we learnt from Finger
Tips what to make out of cardboard and sticky tape, and we saw
how Neil Buchanan of Art Attackcreated a Surfboarding Santa in Barbados! If most schools had these programmes on-hand,
perhaps Science and History lessons wouldn't appear so boring to many
12 - 14 year-olds.

To round off, we must make mention of
the drama shows. What made CITV amazing was that, at the time, you
weren't afraid to push the envelope now and again. You proved that
you weren't afraid of showing a dark side as well as a light. Whether
it was frightening the life out of kids with the supernatural tales
of Dramarama or showing the harsh reality of Children's
Ward that today's children ought to and should know about,
covering difficult issues in a sensitive manner.

While it's now possible to revive
several shows with today's technology, there are still many that are
best left well alone to simple repeated airings (for fear that the same mistakes would be made as reviving Bernard's Watch had proved). However, in case of
Sooty - who is still going on stronger than ever - a blend of
the old and the new in future schedules would be lovely: showcasing
Richard's latest seasons while introducing newer fans to Matthew
Corbett (and, one day, a little of Harry Corbett!) in a way that
everyone, old and new, is left satisfied.

The mention of that 65 year old yellow
bear brings up a key point - longevity. So many of the shows
highlighted in this retro feast boasted very long runs in their day,
and were surely discovered and enjoyed by several different
generations throughout the 80's, 90's and early 00's. Art Attack
very nearly managed twenty years on the air, while Fun House
and Children's Ward notched up a very respectable decade each.
Aside from this obviously meaning plenty in the archive for you to
repeat, can you honestly say any of your currently imported shows
will still be running or even remembered in ten years?

Now is the perfect time to encourage
the current generation to embrace the past alongside the present.
Nostalgia is, after all, becoming ever more apparent and celebrated.
These vintage programmes, however dated they may appear now, can
still offer great entertainment and educational value for your newer,
younger audience.

The weekend of the Old Skool has, in my
opinion, been a rousing success. Though it may have been intended as
a one-off event I really think you should consider another some time
soon, or possibly an Old Skool slot in the schedule. If many of these
shows aren't graced with DVD releases - be it due to copyright issues
or lack of interest - further repeats in future would be most
welcome.

When that day comes, I'm sure many
others would be more than happy to suggest a great many other
programmes of the 80's and 90's that ought to be given a second
broadcast - in fact,I havequite alistpreparedalready...!

I totally agree. I grew up in the 98-04 era but Engie Benjy never particularly interested me and I was disappointed when MPAA added the laugh track.One little-known show that I would have loved to see was Eliminator. Just the idea of a cliffhanging Millionaire for kids and the sense of jeopardy made it exciting viewing when I was 10. The weekend was a tricky balancing act because they needed something for each generation. The only thing that really disappointed me was the 90's Tomorrow People. It didn't really grip me and the scene where the bully shouted ''faggot'' in a children's programme seemed wrong to me, especially strange considering the other programmes the writers made.

Fantastic article and a great blog! I remember the "Old Skool Weekend" very well, it was perhaps the greatest two days of television ever. :-) It showed how brilliant CITV was in their heyday (80's & 90's), sadly it seems to have lost it's way now. I wish that "Zzzap!" had been shown.Also I'm a big fan of Cosgrove Hall's shows too, it's nice to come across a fellow fan. If your on Facebook check out my group "Cosgrove Hall Fans", keep up the good work!

About Me

A creative, funny chap brought up on classic 'toons from Looney Tunes to Danger Mouse. Constantly drawing and writing, he is aiming to land a career in Character Design and/or script writing with new characters or old.